Unbalanced
The world is unbalanced, and not because of the Japanese earthquake that shortened our days by 1.8 microseconds, shifted the earth’s axis 6.5 inches, and moved the island of Japan 8 feet to the east.
No, we are unbalanced morally, financially and politically. We suffer a societal disequilibrium. Up is down, down is up, and the walls are caving in. Progress has left us bankrupt and sliding backwards.
In 1944, Aldous Huxley wrote:
"Industrial man --a sentient reciprocating engine having a fluctuating output, coupled to an iron wheel revolving with uniform velocity. And then we wonder why this should be the golden age of revolution and mental derangement." (Time Must Have a Stop)Have we all been crucified upon the wheel? Is our Western wheel only a less brutal, velvet covered version of the Middle Eastern and Third-World Wheel? Our internal rhythms are no longer our own, life has become digitized, incompatible with analog souls.
Knowledge without love, technology without common sense, progress without morality
In the same book, Huxley also injects this Shakespeare quote from a wounded Hotspur...
But thought's the slave of life,
and life's time's fool,
And time that takes survey of all the world
Must have a stop.
and life's time's fool,
And time that takes survey of all the world
Must have a stop.
When we can no longer imagine the infinite, our thoughts become a slave to life, here and now. Time marches on, making a fool of life and our hopes and dreams. So life can't be the great end, can it? There must be more... Otherwise, as Huxley concludes, our lives are reduced to a "pointless or diabolic foolery."
Huxley on Shakespeare
Google Books – Henry IV
life has become digitized
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you should mention the above. This week, I'll have two posts on the rewiring of our brains. Neurology is a hobby of mine.
Neurology as a hobby? You're an interesting person, AOW!
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to your posts.
"Is our Western wheel only a less brutal, velvet covered version of the Middle Eastern and Third-World Wheel?"
ReplyDeleteOf course it is Silver being we are all human but it is what drives and directs those wheels which for the most part separates us.
As you allude to in the West, we as a society are losing our collective morals and this has nothing to do with advanced technology but rather the loss of ancient knowledge, by choice, and this knowledge I speak of is free if one seeks out God.
If we do not change the direction of our wheel the velvet will come off exposing a rather dark and ugly picture.
I didn't want to make this post a novel, but Huxley was very anti-progressive. Not because of the technology or advancement of the human condition, but because the technology and "new" knowledge caused people to abandon the old wisdom and vest all faith in progress. It's a future worship
ReplyDeleteSilver, We are singing the same tune with different lyric's.
ReplyDeleteUnbalanced? Maybe. I don't blame technology. The world has alway been burdened with people whose deepest thoughts were too shallow to measure. Frotunately, the world also had its share of those who looked into the depth of the universe and found wonder at knowing that we we weren't the end ; but just the begining. The liberals have been working for decades dumb-down each generation more than the last. They have been very successful. The question to me is have we fallen below the ctitical mass necessary to right the ship. And, if so, can we regain that critical mass.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Thanks, Silver.
sorry to sound philosophical or poetic Silver..but we have no choice but to keep the Faith...otherwise all is lost. have a great weekend..what's left of it!:)
ReplyDelete